Friday, January 4, 2013

“Air force commanders picked verteran Mig- 21 pilot Dinh
Ton to take part in the action, for they believed his vast experience would
allow him to cope with the poor weather conditions that plagues the area. On
one of his early flight his departed from Noi Bai at 17:00 hours then
recovered at Dong Hoi to refuel. Taking off again at 19:00 hrs, he headed for
Route 9, but the Americans had by then become aware of his flight and pulled
all of their AC-130s out of the area for good.

VPAF missions against the B-52s met with less success in
the firsthalf of 1971, however, so
several air force officers were sent to Mu Gia Pass to observe B-52 attack
patterns both during the day and at night. In September of that year, radar
units were sent to Ba Don, in Quang Binh province, and to Vinh Linh to track
B-52 activities.

On 4 October, commanders of 921st sent Dinh Ton to Đong
Hoi, from where he would go “hunting” B-52s. The pilot took off after sunset,
but the USAF crews were effectively jamming all communications in the area
and he had to fly without ground radio contact. Dinh Ton soon found two B-52s
in front of him, but judged the situation unsuitable for combat and diverted
to Tho Xuan.

On 20 November, two more Mig- 21s were sent to Vinh, and
another jet to Anh Son. At 20:00 hrs that same day, B-52s were reported 60
ki-lô-mét to the north of Xam Nua. Pilot Vu Dinh Rang was about to become the
first fighter pilot within the VPAF to intercept a B-52s.

At 2046 hrs he scrambled from Anh son airfield, and once
aloft he was informed by ground control that his three targets were 100 kilometers away. He dropped his fuel tank and climbed to 10,000 meters, and at a
distance of 15 kilometers, Vu Dinh Rang switched on his radar and applied full
throttle. At eight kilometers he fired an AAM at one of the B-52s, and as he
broke away from his attack, he spotted another bomber in front of him. Vu
Dinh Rang launched his second missile, and at 21:15 hrs he landed at Anh Son.
There, he was told that the first B-52 had been damaged and had to make an
emergency landing in Thailand.

The attempt to shoot down B-52s, as well as an increased
movement of North Vietnamese troops towards the south, prompted President
Richard Nixon to warn Ha Noi that bombing strike would re-commence if such
activities continued. As part of this threat, fighter-bombers started
penetrating North Vietnamese airspace once again, and on 18 December the VPAF
struck back then Le Thanh Do and Vo Si Giap downed F-4Ds 66-0241 and 65-0799
of the 432nd TRW.